I’ve been making a lot of bread lately using the tangzhong method, a natural method of making bread that creates a very soft and fluffy texture. You can read more about it here.

After making my matcha chocolate bread roll, I had some leftover tangzhong mixture so I decided to make some more chocolate bread but make rolls instead of a loaf.
Next time I’m going to add some chocolate chips into these rolls to get a bigger chocolate punch.

The rolls came out super soft. I baked them in the same small 7 x 3 inch loaf pans I used for the matcha chocolate bread. Three inches wide ended up being the perfect size for these rolls. I’m glad I baked them stuck together (which can easily be pulled apart later).
I previously had made matcha rolls with red bean filling. I baked each roll individuall on a baking sheet. It ended up not being very soft, since the oven was cooking all sides of the roll. By placing these rolls together, they stayed much softer.

I was pretty happy with how these came out. They stayed soft for days! I put the leftovers in an airtight container and they tasted just as fresh for the next few days as the day when they were first baked.

Instructions

Make sure you have tangzhong already made the night before or a few hours before you are going to make the bread as it needs to cool in the refrigerator before use.

Combine the flour, cocoa powder, salt, sugar and instant yeast in a bowl of a stand mixer. Make a well in the center. Whisk and combine all wet ingredients: milk, egg and tangzhong, then add into the well of the dry ingredients. Use the dough hook attachment and mix on low speed until your dough comes together and then add in the butter and continue mixing on medium to high speed. Mix with the dough hook for about 18-20 minutes until the dough is no longer sticky and is elastic. You want the dough to be elastic. So if you were to take a part of it and stretch it out, you can stretch it to a very thin membrane without it breaking. When you poke a hole in the thin membrane, it should form a close to perfect circle. Here is an example from another bread I made that wasn’t this chocolate one:

Gather the dough into a ball shape. Take a large bowl and grease with oil. Place dough into greased bowl and cover with a wet towel. Let it proof until it’s doubled in size, about 40 minutes.

Deflate and divide the dough into six equal portions. Knead into ball shapes. Cover with cling wrap, let rest for 15 minutes.

Roll out each part with a rolling pin into an oval shape. Take one end of the dough and fold to meet the middle of the oval. Take the other end and fold to meet on top. Turn the dough over, so that the folds face down and roll and flatten dough with pin. Flip dough again, so folded side faces up. Roll the dough up from top to bottom. Here are pictures of the dough steps I previously made with another loaf that wasn’t a chocolate version:

Turn down sides of dough roll until they meet at the bottom and pinch them together. Then roll and shape dough until it forms a round ball. Repeat this step of rolling for the rest of your dough. With seals of the dough balls facing down, place the six balls into two 7×3 inch loaf pans lined with parchment paper (three balls in each pan). Then cover with cling wrap or a wet towel. Leave it for the second round of proofing, about 45 to 60 minutes, until double in size.

Whisk an egg and brush egg wash on surface of buns (this will create the shiny finish). Bake in a pre-heated 350F oven for 30-35 minutes. Transfer onto a wire rack and let cool completely.